Young child caused accident on pavement

[Senso]

AIBU to think that young children should not be allowed to be in charge of a pushchair on the pavement?

I was witness to an incident that happened on a busy street where a young child, aged around 8 was pushing a pushchair - occupied by a toddler - too fast, and collided with another pedestrian.

the injured person had been walking at a normal pace in the opposite direction but the child just charged straight into her causing her to fall and sustain quite a nasty impact injury.

The parents didn’t seem to get that the child had caused the accident, instead repeating that it was “just an accident, no-one was to blame”

i think otherwise.

Do you want the child charged with ABH?

I voted YABU because it’s hardly a big deal and you seem to be over dramatising it.

YANBU at all. As well as injuring a pedestrian, it's putting the toddler in the pram at risk. If the child can't control the pram, it could end up in the road. The response from the parents is disgraceful, they should be embarrassed that they've let their child cause someone an injury.

Whilst I agree with you @Senso the reality is that the type of parents who allow their young kids to push a pushchair they can barely control / walk a dog that’s far too strong for them etc are precisely the kind who will never take any accountability for their choices, their child’s actions and any subsequent consequences that result. So I’m not sure what can be done.

On a bit of a tangent, but I’ve never liked the term accident as it implies an event which has happened purely by chance, and in no way linked to the choices or actions of anyone involved, rather than an accurate descriptor to signify a lack of intent behind such choices/actions.

In my view, unless your talking Act of God type territory, there’s pretty much no circumstance where an incident occurs and it can’t be traced back to something someone has done/failed to do.

Yanbu. My mum is old and has osteoporosis and is terrified of a fall as she would break something. So far she’s had near misses with electric scooters, runners and bikes on the pavement and she’s very cautious but not sure she’d be looking out for a badly driven pram!

I don't understand why the pedestrian did not give them a wide birth if they were walking towards them.

I agree that it's the parents fault, but you can still mitigate for iffy situations by keeping a distance.

Imagine if you had a dog that injured someone, and said it was just an accident. If you are the adult, you should be looking after your child, or animal. No one's perfect and mistakes do happen, but it's more her attitude that worries me, because the child could get injured, or effectively kill someone next time (if an old person is knocked over and breaks a bone, this can massively affect their life and lead to an earlier death).

Really? I have 3.9 out of 5 osteoporosis of a vertebra. If someone decked me like that it would quite possibly put me in a wheelchair.

One of the commonest causes of death in older women is a broken hip from a fall.

A wide berth? Do you walk on urban pavements very often?

YANBU - the parents are at fault here. They should have been monitoring more closely. DS, 5 insists on pushing the trolley round the supermarket, he’s pretty good at it but not perfect so I stay very close so he doesn’t hurt anyone, especially if the shop is busy the I say no.

Not a big deal? Perhaps it is to the injured party

accidents happen, that’s just the way it goes

Yanbu, this is the exact reason I dont let my 9 year old push the toddler, she likes to run with the buggy! I'm worried it'll topple over, go into the road etc as well as people. So yes, a bit of common sense needed.

Accidents happen when people are careless🙄

fine if it only impacts them but if you hurt/kill someone else in the process then ‘oh well, accidents happen’

Of course. We can’t control careless people though can we? This is a really weird conversation.

The OP specifically described 'a busy street'. I don't know what the pavements are like where you are, but where I am, they don't normally fit more than three abreast - it isn't possible to give 'a wide berth' unless you walk into the road.

And frankly, if you're walking along minding your own business on the pavement, you shouldn't have to be dodging avoidable hazards such as child that's too young to be pushing a toddler losing control of a pram.

Not a big deal? Someone falling down in the street probably injuring themselves.
Have a think about it.

Those electric wheelchairs are a nightmare. They should not be able to move faster than a person can walk.

The parents could just as easily have done it themselves 🤷‍♀️

More than once I’ve been rammed by a pram while the parent was walking along with their head stuck in their phone.

The whole point of the thread is that the parents should have been controlling the situation and OP asked if she was unreasonable to think that

It’s not about whether or not the woman who was hit could have or should have done something.

an avoidable accident had the parents been paying proper attention to their child. They aught to be ashamed.

The injured party was in a huge amount of pain with possibly a broken hip.

Yes

On their phone no doubt.

Yes I’ve thought about it. I still don’t think someone having a fall is a big deal, no. It’s an everyday occurance